Retelling and Summarizing

Retelling

Below is a silly story I heard on the radio. I'm retelling it. There once was a squirrel who went into an ice cream shop and asked the clerk, "Do you have walnuts?" "No. Sorry. We're out of walnuts today." The squirrel went away, but came back an hour later and said, "Have you got any walnuts?" The clerk looked at the squirrel angrily. "I told you. We don't have any walnuts now get outta here." The squirrel went out the door, but in an hour came back again. "Have you got any walnuts?" he asked the clerk. "I told you we don't have any walnuts. Listen here. If you come back here one more time I'm going to nail your paws to the counter. Now, get outta here!" The squirrel went out again but, sure enough, an hour later he was back. "Have you got any nails?" he asked. The clerk looked surprised. "No. I don't have any nails." "Great!" the squirrel said. "Have you got any walnuts?"

Definition
The dictionary defines retelling as telling a story again in your own words. The students are required to include the main points - the characters, the setting, the beginning, middle and end. This is not the same word-for-word story as the radio DJ told. Its my retelling.

Summarizing

Definition
Summarizing is to identify key elements and condense important information into their own words We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial details necessary for supporting them.

Goal
It helps students learn to determine main ideas and differentiate important from unimportant ideas It enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are worth noting and remembering. It teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding.

When the students are asked to summarize, they often:

-write down everything -give complete sentences - write way too much -don't write enough - copy word for word

The teacher expects the students to:

-pull out main ideas -focus on key details -use key words and phrases -break down the larger ideas -write only enough to convey the gist

Strategies
1. General/Common Strategy
Use the key words or phrases to identify only Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

2. "Somebody Wanted But So"

Use familiar vocabulary to summarize by completing the phrase Somebody (who) Wanted (this refers to what the "somebody" wanted) But (someone else does something) So (the result). Summaries can be written based on several points of view depending on who's listed in the "Somebody" column.

The following is an example of how this strategy might be applied using The Wolf's Chicken Stew:
Character The wolf Wanted To fatten up the chicken in order to make her into chicken stew But The chicken and her chicks thanked the wolf for all the wonderful food he had been leaving on their doorstep So The wolf had dinner made by the chicken instead of having her for dinner

Summary: The wolf wanted to fatten up the chicken so he could make her into chicken stew. The chicken and her chicks thanked the wolf for all the food he left on their doorstep and made him dinner.

Strategies
3. Very Important Points (V.I.P) Locate the most important ideas in a selection. Example: Students are given a sticky note with slim strips cut down to the sticky edge. As the students read, they tear off a piece and mark the important parts of the selection. The students are limited in the number of strips they have, and so when they have used all their strips and come to another point they want to mark, they must go back to their previously marked points and reevaluate which are most important. Students then must justify why they felt these were the most important points.

Strategies
4. Read, Cover, Remember, Retell Stop after reading small portions of the text and retell what the section was mostly about. It is to think about the meaning before moving on to the next section of the text. After becoming adept at using this strategy to orally retell portions of the text, try to write a summary sentence of each section and then use these sentences to write an overall summary of the selection.

Strategies
5. Writing Summaries Use a short passage and highlight important information and cross out redundant, highly detailed, or unimportant information. The steps are as follows:

1. Select the passage and underline the main idea . Then, cross out redundant, highly detailed or unimportant information. The following is a sample selection:

Mountain lions are amazing animals. They are the largest member of the cat family living in North America. Full-grown mountain lions can weigh as little as 90 pounds to as much as about 200 pounds. Most weigh about 110 pounds. From its nose to the tip of its tail, a mountain lion is about 6 feet long. Mountain lions are carnivorous. That means they are meat-eaters. They kill small animals such as rabbits and skunks for food. They also eat larger animals such as deer and elk. They even eat cattle, sheep, and horses. Because mountain lions are very secretive, they are hard to find. They often live in brushy and rocky places. They are very territorial. That means they live and hunt in a certain area or territory. They are beautiful animals, but they are very strong and can be very fierce and dangerous. We all need to be very careful if we go into their territory!
2. Write a short paragraph from the information recorded on the graphic organizer. Mountain lions are the largest member of the cat family in North America. They are carnivorous and dangerous. They are also territorial and secretive and can be hard to find.

Assignment 5
Synthesizing

Reading Strategy: Synthesizing

1. What is Synthesizing? 2. Give an example. 3. What are the differences between Summarizing and Synthesizing?

Put your findings in Power Point. Some groups will be responsible to present their findings in front of the class next week.